Join facilitators and alumna of Julie’s Bicycle’s Creative Climate Leadership programme to explore how relationships to land and ecology of communities shape cultural and artistic practices, language, poetry, and creative resistance.
With climate justice perspectives from Palestine, Kashmir and Brazil, Farah, Khalil and Thiago will consider how colonialism in Palestine severs Indigenous connections to land globally, and facilitates the destruction of cultural infrastructures and the extraction of resources for profit.
Khalil Thirlaway is a Palestinian-British science communicator, creative producer and presenter. He finds creative and unexpected ways to connect audiences with science and nature, integrating social and cultural narratives alongside fun and humour to open up new avenues of thought. Khalil has previously worked with the Festival of the Spoken Nerd, Science Museum and Natural History Museum, including co-hosting the Wild Crimes and Our Broken Planet podcasts. He is currently developing a multimedia project about the Palestinian diaspora experience.
Farah Ahmed (she/they) is the Climate Justice Lead at Julie’s Bicycle. She develops resources, curates events and advocacy, connecting environmental, racial and social justice, and creative activism. Their interest lies in how art and culture can centre perspectives from the frontlines of climate impacts, and how we can imagine and build meaningful decolonial, care-centred, and anti-capitalist communities. Farah is also co-founder of Diaspora Futures, a space to nourish and strengthen the bodies, minds and souls of people of colour in the climate movement.
Thiago Jesus is a creative producer and researcher who works with Julie’s Bicycle and leads the Indigenous Exchange and Climate Action projects at People’s Palace Projects (Queen Mary University of London). Since 2014, Thiago has been working closely with Indigenous peoples from the Xingu Territory—in the Brazilian Amazon’s ‘arc of deforestation’—leading an exchange programme for the preservation of indigenous cultural practices as a key factor in safeguarding the communities from the climate crisis. Thiago is doing doctoral research investigating how third-sector organisations with arts and environment at the heart of their programmes approach climate change and respond to environmental issues in distinct North and South contexts.
Julie’s Bicycle is a pioneering not-for-profit working across the UK and internationally, mobilising the arts and culture to take action on the climate, nature and justice crisis. The Creative Climate Leadership programme; an initiative empowering artists and cultural professionals to take action on the climate and ecological crisis in their communities with impact, creativity, and resilience
Community Guidelines
We convene here together from diverse backgrounds, cultures, traditions, and political experiences with the shared objective of advancing the struggle for Palestine. We ask all participants help us to create and maintain the space for a respectful discussion, exchange, and collaboration, by keeping the following principles in mind:
- Prepare yourself before attending. Have you slept and eaten well? Do you have someone to talk to afterwards?
- Please do your best to arrive on time for sessions, and be fully present.
- Please let our team know if you are attending alone and would like to be introduced to others,
- Assume the best intent and stay open-minded in any conversation, keeping in mind the diversity of experience and opinions of the participants.
- Respect the religious and cultural obligations of any participant, and if you are unsure of any cultural or religious boundaries that some adhere to, ask. A dedicated space is available for those observing prayer.
- If you feel overwhelmed at any point during an event our library is available as a quiet breakout space. Please let a member of our team know whether you would like to be accompanied or need additional support.
- We do not tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, antisemitism, or any other form of discrimination.
- To make everyone feel comfortable, including the speakers we ask not to film during the event. Photographs are allowed with permission.